dean









dean


noun

  1. Education.
    1. the head of a faculty, school, or administrative division in a university or college: the dean of admissions.
    2. an official in an American college or secondary school having charge of student personnel services, such as counseling or discipline: the dean of men.
    3. the official in charge of undergraduate students at an English university.
  2. Ecclesiastical.
    1. the head of the chapter of a cathedral or a collegiate church.
    2. Also called vicar forane.a priest in the Roman Catholic Church appointed by a bishop to take care of the affairs of a division of a diocese.
  3. the senior member, in length of service, of any group, organization, profession, etc.: the dean of lexicographers.

noun British.

  1. dene.

noun

  1. James (Byron),1931–55, U.S. actor.
  2. Jay HannaDizzy, 1911–74, U.S. baseball pitcher.
  3. a male given name: from the Old English family name meaning “valley.”

noun British.

  1. a bare, sandy tract or low sand hill near the sea.

noun

  1. the chief administrative official of a college or university faculty
  2. (at Oxford and Cambridge universities) a college fellow with responsibility for undergraduate discipline
  3. mainly Church of England the head of a chapter of canons and administrator of a cathedral or collegiate church
  4. RC Church the cardinal bishop senior by consecration and head of the college of cardinalsSee also rural dean Related adjective: decanal

noun

  1. Forest of Dean a forest in W England, in Gloucestershire, between the Rivers Severn and Wye: formerly a royal hunting ground

noun

  1. Christopher. See Torvill and Dean
  2. James (Byron). 1931–55, US film actor, who became a cult figure; his films include East of Eden and Rebel Without a Cause (both 1955). He died in a car crash

noun

  1. British a valley, esp one that is narrow and wooded

noun

  1. dialect, mainly Southern English a sandy stretch of land or dune near the sea

pl n

  1. the North American Indian peoples of Nunavut and the Northwest Territories in Canada. The official body representing them is called the Dene Nation
n.

early 14c., from Old French deien (12c., Modern French doyen), from Late Latin decanus “head of a group of 10 monks in a monastery,” from earlier secular meaning “commander of 10 soldiers” (which was extended to civil administrators in the late empire), from Greek dekanos, from deka “ten” (see ten). Replaced Old English teoðingealdor. College sense is from 1570s (in Latin from late 13c.).

n.2

“bare, sandy tract by the sea,” late 13c., of uncertain origin, perhaps connected to dune, but the sense difference is difficult.

n.1

“small valley,” from Old English denu “valley” (see den).

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